California Dish: What I Saw (and Cooked) at the American Culinary Revolution

I worked for Jeremiah off and on for 17 years or so. He is totally correct. His inspiration was Curnowsky and the classic French cuisine of the late 19th century.This is what made him famous as no one in the early 1970's was particularly focused on organic, fresh yes, but not organic. That was what attracted the likes of James Beard and other luminaries to his table. He cooked like this while in college, long before Chez Panisse was conceived. He wanted his own restaurant and he really paid rent on the space that STARS occupied, for 6 years before he opened it in 1985. It was his intellectual interpretation that brought Chez Panisse it's fame in making California the birthplace of Modern American Cooking. While there were restaurants in the East that relied on fresh produce and meats from local farmers, they were all owned or under control of French chefs. Jeremiah was the first American who realised the importance of local and fresh. NOW, the standard of good restaurants.

If Oscar Wilde had written a book about food, this would be it. The same wit and zero tolerance for B.S. levelled at BOH, FOH, board room, colleagues, press corps. But magnanimity and menus, too. An amazing life even without the food, this is an important report about the food revolution, through Tower's innately discriminating and world-class trained eye and in his words. No ghosts here -- the pantry and walk-in doors are wide open.

The New York Times called California Dish an important book in how it chronicles the revolution in American cooking in the 1970s--foodies should eat it up. But it's also terrifically fun to read. Tower isn't just a great chef but an engaging and witty storyteller, who can be brutally honest about himself and others. This book made me hungry AND laugh out loud. To paraphrase the punch line to a great anecdote early in the book, California Dish is a delicious meal and Jeremiah Tower is dessert.

I just finished reading Jeremiah Tower's outrageously stylish memoir, and I don't hesistate to say it's compusively readable and hugely entertaining. I grew up in San Francisco and know the culinary history of that fabled city inside and out. I only know Tower through his reputation. While I've dined at Stars, (wonderful food in a superb party atmosphere), his now-closed bistro in San Francisco, I never ate at Chez Panisse during his tenure there as the chef. I appreciate anybody who isn't afraid to bite back at a nasty and disloyal media, or some of their powerful icons. And Tower takes no prisoners here, deservedly serving up Alice Waters, Michael Bauer (S.F. Chronicle food critic), and others. He's already been accused of being bitter--and so what! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Tower grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. His mother, aunt and uncle and his world travels, exposed him to a wide range of great cooking, the best in wines and spirts, even during the terrible 50s when the U.S. was pretty much a agricultural and culinary wasteland when it came to fresh ingredients. Tower further refined his pallette in Boston during his Harvard years. Well traveled, well-read, intensely and naturally curious about food and the great wines and spirits of the world, it's no wonder that he gravitated towards cooking professionally. Though he never attended culinary school, he didn't need to. He was a collector of menus, wrote his own, and came up with wonderful ideas based on his education, his experience and his organic connection to food. Tower managed to talk his way into the chef's job at Chez Panisse, and the rest was history. He brazenly established his surpremacy calling upon everything he had learned, and his timing was impeccable. Just as Alice Waters and other pioneering souls in California were creating wha the press would dub California Cuisine, capturing the culinary world by storm, and Tower was in the middle of it all. He cannily exploited the press, and his natural talent and flamboyance made him a big star. When he finally opened Stars, he had created a powerful coterie of the world's (and San Francisco's) moneyed and social supporters. From day one, the restaurant was a huge smash hit, and Tower it's majestic king. And after a little more than ten years of massive success, it all fell apart. A victim of his own wandering attention span and spread-too-thin ambition, lawsuits (frivolous and otherwise), the San Francisco earthquake (1989), which hurt Stars's business, defecting personnel, and a formerly adoring press that had suddenly morphed into jackals, Tower's fall was mighty and humiliating. He charts his history honestly. His trademark champagne glass ever hoisted, Tower isn't afraid to take the blame himself when necessary. He acknowledges his hair-trigger temper which hurt many. Only at the very end does his story get a tad whiney. But considering what he was up against, I'm not sure I blame him

You don't have to be a 'foodie' to be captivated by the sheer dishiness of this book--from the story of Tower's growing up amid an eccentric and erratic family, to his fame and fortune at Chez Panisse and Stars. An elegant and witty writer, it's the perfect read whether or not you know the difference between a shiitake or button mushroom, it's a tantalizing tale!